WHERE: St Osmund’s Church, Dorset

WHEN: 6th December 2008

How they met

Fiona and Tim were introduced by mutual friends on Valentine’s Day.

The proposal

Tim proposed in South America during a blackout. “We were in the Amazon jungle,” explains Fiona. “There was no electricity and everything was lit by lamps and candles. We were sharing a bottle of wine when all of a sudden he produced a ring – I was so shocked, I nearly fell off my chair!”

The bride’s real wedding outfit

Fiona looked stunning in an A-line Sottero and Midgley gown, style number SSM5078. The ivory strapless dress featured a pretty embellishment along the bodice and skirt.

The accessories

“We were sharing a bottle of wine when all of a sudden he produced a ring – I nearly fell off my chair!” Fiona’s gorgeous ‘Fern’ necklace, bracelet and earrings were from Yarwood-White, while Crystal Bridal Accessories dyed her ‘Moonstone’ by Belle shoes. Fiona completed her look with a full – length, satin – edged veil and diamanté clip from Accessorize.

“We were sharing a bottle of wine when all of a sudden he produced a ring – I nearly fell off my chair!”

The groom’s real wedding outfit

Tim looked dapper in a classic black morning suit from Moss Bros, complemented with an ivory waistcoat and tie.

The bridesmaids

The four bridesmaids looked gorgeous in purple strapless dresses from Hobbs. Silver strappy sandals from Debenhams and jewellery from Accessorize completed their outﬁts.

The flowers

The wonderful Fleur Provocateur created the beautiful ﬂowers for the real wedding. Fiona’s bouquet contained Avalanche roses, Akito roses, Trachelium, Limonium, Italian ruscus and purple Vanda orchids. The pew ends and windowsills were decorated with white candles, organza, ivy and white ribbon. The buttonholes were white roses and to differentiate the groom, they added lavender sprigs.

The cake

An amazing four-tiered double chocolate dream cake was made by Patisserie – Valerie “Absolutely everybody raved about the cake,” exclaims Fiona. “It was just delicious!”

“Dad put together a slideshow of pictures from our younger days, it was brilliant!”

The favours

Each guest at the real wedding had purple heart – shaped chocolates placed on their napkins. Fiona and Tim also presented their guests with Chinese tea and fortune cookies.

The reception

Tim’s family home, ‘Meadowlea’, hosted the reception. To begin the celebrations, canapés and Champagne were served on the terrace. The wedding breakfast and evening reception took place in a marquee that had been erected on the lawn. The garden was decorated with Chinese lanterns and Chinese ‘double happiness symbols’, complete with white and purple heart-shaped balloons.

The decoration

On each table sat a vase containing white roses and purple lisianthus, and the vases were big enough to put goldﬁsh in them, too. “Goldﬁsh are extremely lucky in Chinese culture,” explains Fiona. They put information cards about the ﬁsh next to each bowl to explain to guests

The wedding breakfast

“Dad put together a slideshow of pictures from our younger days, it was brilliant!”Guests were treated to a sumptuous three-course meal that started with roast butternut squash soup, followed by herb-marinated lamb or spinach feta roulade, and ﬁnished with the cake and berry coulis

The entertainment

The Alani String Quartet played for the guests during the drinks reception. The couple enjoyed their ﬁrst dance to Barry White’s My First, My Last, My Everything. Some good friends put together a live set and then a DJ took over until 4am

Special touch

“Because I worked on ITV’s This Morning at the time, my mum organised for Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford to record a video message, which my dad played during his speech,” says Fiona.

If we could do it all again…

“We would change absolutely nothing. It sounds ridiculous but it was the most incredibly perfect day, right from the perfect blue skies and hot sun, in September, to everything falling into place and people wanting to carry on partying all night. The party didn’t ﬁnish until 4:30am and that’s only because we kicked everyone out and told them to go home!” laughs Fiona.

The Honeymoon

Fiona and Tim spent three weeks visiting Hong Kong, Borneo, Malaysia and Thailand. This included a second wedding celebration with some family members in Malaysia.

Alice is a keen cyclist and also absolutely loves vintage clothes. She doesn't wear them while cycling though, that would be silly. The owner of two Guinea Pigs called Ronnie and Reggie, she's also a twin herself!

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